Friction materials are often designed based upon criteria put forth by the purchasers or users of the materials. This may take into consideration the required aggressiveness of the material, propensity of the materials to generate unacceptable noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) levels, environmental safety of the material or otherwise. This may also take into consideration the cost and difficulty in designing such materials and the resulting end product thereof, such as brake pads, friction plates or otherwise.
Friction materials use a variety of organic and inorganic fibers for process improvement of the material and to provide thermal and structural reinforcement. Natural or man-made fibers can be linear, amorphous, or fibrillated. Examples of fiber reinforcements include aramid, flax, acrylic, mineral, ceramic, glass, steel, copper, and brass. However, organic fibers, such as aramid and acrylic, provide limited structural reinforcement and thermal resistance. Ceramic fibers while providing good heat resistance are not environmentally desirable. Man-made amorphous biosoluble mineral fibers have thermal resistance, however, they provide only a limited amount of structural and thermal reinforcement resistance due to their morphology. Glass fiber while ideal reinforcement to confer heat resistance to friction material are overly aggressive to the braking mating surfaces (e.g. rotor or drum) and often results in undesirable NVH levels.
The present invention seeks to improve on the available friction materials and methods of forming thereof.